When auto racing started in Europe at the beginning of the 1900's it generally took place through the countryside on standard roads. This tradition has continued down to the present with the typical European auto race taking place on a road type of circuit. On the other hand in the United States at the beginning of the 1900's auto racing started on rundown horse racing tracks. This tradition has substantially continued to the present with the typical auto race venue being on a dedicated oval circuit with some exceptions. Additionally, professional auto racing of various types has become multibillion-dollar sport/entertainment industry.
Over the years auto racing has fragmented into several different forms, which in many respects are or may become mutually exclusive. A number of the major variations are Formula 1 (F-1) (A privately owned, Europe based, international series running formula autos on road circuits), Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART, a publicly traded U.S. based corporation that sponsors an international series running formula autos on road, street, oval and mixed circuits.) and National Association of Stock Car Auto Racers (NASCAR), (Privately owned, U.S. based, National Series Running “stock” cars on 99% oval mix and 2% road circuits).
One of the more recent fractures in auto racing occurred in the mid-1990's when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and CART parted ways, leading to the creation of the Indy Racing League (IRL), (A privately owned, U.S. based, National series running formula cars on a variety of oval mix circuits). Given the fact that sponsors, fans and contracts with broadcast outlets are limited the more fractured the sport becomes the less it will be able to sustain the concentration of money and fans necessary for the sport to survive and thrive.
As noted the IRL Series confines their racing to an oval type racetrack when the car moves around the oval in one direction and makes each turn in only one direction. Racing on oval tracks began on horse tracks and since horses' raced in a counter clockwise direction with only left turns modern auto racing continues this tradition. The cars in this type of racing are thus designed to turn only to the left during the race and consequently a number of mechanical, structural and aerodynamic design features of this form of racing machine are intended to optimize the operation of the car and the safety of the driver under the conditions for racing on an oval circuit in one direction.
Presently, CART incorporates a more flexibly designed car suitable for racing on oval, street or road circuits and where there are turns to both the left and right. The fissure between CART and IMS resulted in part from IMS mandated requirements regarding engine power and design, and chassis rules for the INDY 500 (An IMS Corp., Race) in order to slow the cars down. At the time of this fissure CART had 20 other races in its series and was locked into engine contracts that specified engines which did not meet the engines design mandated by IMS's. CART'S powerful engines were too fast for IMS thus CART and IMS parted ways. IMS started its own series, the IRL, with a more restrictive engine formula in order to slow the speeds down on ovals. CART went on its way without the INDY 500 as its showcase event while IMS with the establishment of IRL continued developed its own series of events.
Since CART cars do not have the design limitations mandated by IRL they can achieve higher speeds than IRL cars. However, this fact in itself causes problems in that on some racetracks, in particular oval ones. CART cars can reach speeds of over 240 miles per hour. Since the turns of the typical high performance oval racetrack are steeply banked the cars can enter the curves at speeds of 240 miles per hour or more. At these speeds the driver experiences forces equivalent to two to three G's, similar to that experienced by jet fighter pilots, only in a different direction, i.e. laterally. Thus in a race on an oval track in which a car completes one circuit of the track in a half a minute or less the driver may experience these forces two or three times over the course of half a minute. From experience it has been determined that an individual undergoing periodic G forces more frequently than every 40 to 50 seconds will have a tendency to black out. Additionally, G-suits used by fighter pilots are useless in a racing car since a pilot only experiences an up and down force while that experienced by a racing car driver also to the side, lateral.
The situation become so bad that on Apr. 29, 2001 the President of the CART had to cancel a race, the Firestone Fire hawk 600, scheduled at the Texas Motor Speedway. During trials the drivers were experiencing excessive G forces in the turns and there was a fear that in the drivers attempts to perform at maximum possible speeds some of the drivers might black out with catastrophic consequences. Texas Motor Speedway like many other oval tracks have high-banked corner's that allow the cars to maintain their maximum speeds in the turns. Additionally the Texas Motor Speedway had no straights of significant length to give the drivers a break. Drivers were thus experiencing G forces a majority of the time in each lap. On the other hand although IMS has long straights it has tow-banked 90-degree corners with no runoff but the drivers are still able to maintain speed without lifting off the throttle.
Although street courses can be set up to inhibit the speed at which CART autos run at they usually provide a spectator only a limited view of the race unlike an oval track which usually allows a spectator a view of substantially most of the race. Additionally, street courses lack the efficiency and crowd control features of an oval track. Since one of the purposes of auto racing is to make money for its promoters and participants oval or enclosed tracks that allow for optimal crowd placement and control are much more desirable than open road courses. Typically, several different types of racecourses can be placed inside the confines of an oval track including a street type of course for Formula 1 racing. However, one of the limitations of an oval track are the limited design options for IRL racing autos which are designed to turn in one direction during a race, to the left.
Given present design techniques available for oval auto racecourses and the need to limit turns to one direction around the entire course the options available for IRL type of tracks are severely limited. Most oval courses are limited in total acreage and if made too big in area Lose the advantage associated with an oval track. Only so many turns can be introduced into an oval course and then it simply becomes a circular course.
Thus, what is needed is some means to reverse the effects of fragmentation within auto racing and allow each of the different racing series to compete at the same facility, but not on the same circuit. Such a racecourse would have the advantage of limiting all turns to the left for certain types of races while increasing the distance and number of corners of the track, much like a road course.